


Friend (and Boy) Meet Serious Consequences

by Ellie226



Series: Boy's Friend Meets World [2]
Category: Boy Meets World
Genre: Discipline, Non-Consensual Parental Spanking, Parental Spanking, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-25
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-13 12:24:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14748818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellie226/pseuds/Ellie226
Summary: Shawn and Cory decide to hang out at Feeny's cottage (season 3, episode 11, City Slackers). When their parents (and Turner) find out, they are in some serious trouble.





	1. Chapter 1

“Believe me, their punishment will fit the crime,”  Jon promised Mr. Feeny, making Shawn wince a little.

 

He had never seen Turner that mad before. He’d seen him mad, although the man was practically pathological about not “disciplining” Shawn when he was angry. He always waited until he’d calmed down. This was definitely the most pissed off though.

 

Plus, Cory’s parents looked equally furious, and Jon had told him that it had been Mr. Matthew’s idea...Shawn really didn’t need any more great discipline techniques suggested to Hunter by Cory’s dad, and it was looking like he was getting them anyway.

 

Feeny tried to calm all three parents down, and he actually let a comforting hand brush both boys’ shoulders on his way out, a silent, ‘hey, I tried,’ before abandoning them.

 

But abandon them he did. And to a greater horror than Shawn could have imagined. 

 

It started with both boys being herded to the living room, where they were forced onto the couch and found themselves being thoroughly and completely lectured before they were both hustled to Cory’s bedroom and forced to wait on the bed while the parents came up with an appropriate sentence.

 

It would be a joint deal. That much was relayed to them before they got upstairs. Seated on Cory’s bed, Shawn watched his friend pace frenetically. 

 

“Calm down, Cor,” he tried to sound calmer than he felt. “It can’t be that bad. It won’t be that bad. It’s going to be fine.”

 

“Ohhhh, it’s not going to be fine,” Cory disagreed, not making eye contact. He shook his head firmly. “This is the opposite of fine. This is...wood.”

 

“Come on,” Shawn tried.

 

Cory shut him down, “They are going to kill us.”

 

“They can’t kill us.”

 

Shawn wasn’t entirely certain of that fact, but he also new Cory had a tendency to overreact. And right now, to quell his own rising panic, he had to assume Cory was overreacting. 

 

Deciding to try to get his friend to think rationally, he said, “What is going to happen, Cory?”

 

Still pacing, Cory shrugged, “I don’t know. This is bad. This is like the worst bad I think.”

 

“Okay, so what does that mean?” Shawn asked, finally getting up and blocking his friend. “We’re grounded? Turner’s taking advice from your parents. 2 weeks? A month?”

 

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to cut it,” Cory said, really not wanting to tell his friend. Although, Shawn’s statement about Turner taking advice was odd.

 

As it was, he didn’t want to speculate about punishments, although he had a pretty good idea of where things were going. And things were going in a direction where being grounded for a couple days was not the worst thing since jeans over a spanked ass were unpleasant, and he could just wear sweatpants in his room. 

 

Plus, all things considered, and given how furious his parents were, it was going to be a doozy of a spanking. Cory wished they’d just come up with punishment and pronounce sentence. 

 

Maybe it wouldn’t be a spanking though. There’d been a lot of talk about how things were going to be fair, and there was no way Turner was going to spank Shawn. Cory didn’t think his parents and Mr. Turner would have emphasized the equal responsibility so much if they hadn’t intended to follow through.

 

Cory was panicking, and he was useless to Shawn in this state. Really, all he was doing for Shawn was making him want to go out the window. Which was strictly forbidden, per Turner’s (relatively reasonable, although Shawn didn’t think of them that way when he was in trouble) rules.

 

Against the rules or not, Cory’s panic was too much, and Shawn started edging toward the window. He’d go out the window, into the tree, through the treehouse, to the patio, and then California. Or Texas. Or PIttsburgh. He just needed to get far enough away to give everyone some time to calm down. Cory was on his own.


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, downstairs…

 

“It just seems like a lot,” Jonathan said, fiddling with his coffee cup.

 

Alan shrugged, “It is. It has to be. We spank Cory for sneaking out. It’s got to be more when they sneak out and take a cab two and a half hours away.”

 

“Take a cab that far,” Amy started enumerating their sins on her fingers, “lie about their whereabouts. Go swimming in a septic tank. That’s three dangerous things they did, Jon. I don’t see how we can’t respond strongly to that.”

 

“How do you guys do this?” Turner asked, slouching down from his spot on his chair and looking at the ceiling. 

 

“Practice,” Amy offered with a smile. “There’s a learning curve, and we got it easy because the kids were too young to know we were messing up when they were little. Now that they’re older, we have more practice, and our screw ups are less often.”

 

“I don’t have practice,” he said, in a whine.

 

“Buck up,” Alan replied. “And frankly, Jon, it doesn’t have to be the same. I know we talked a lot about fair, but fair doesn’t always mean equal. So long as the public punishment is the same, anything we handle privately the boys are not going to want to talk about it.”

 

“If I had to guess, Cory has no idea that you’ve ever spanked Shawn,” Amy pointed out. She knew how carefully Shawn guarded his secrets, even from his best friend. And she absolutely knew that Cory was not advertising the punishments he received at home.

 

“It just doesn’t fair.”

 

Alan smiled, “You sound like them, you know. Look at the kids’ lives; nothing thus far has been fair, why should this be?”

 

Jon considered that, finally leaning forward, elbows on his knees, “So, what are we doing?”

 

“Well,” Alan said, “we’re spanking Cory with a hairbrush. That’s our go to for something dangerous, although if this keeps happening-”

 

“He’s too young,” Amy interrupted.

 

They’d had this argument a few times. Cory was in high school now. He was the same age Eric was when they started occasionally using a belt. They’d only done it a handful of times, but it was an effective way of dealing with truly terrible behavior. Amy wasn’t ready yet with Cory though.

 

“Anyway,” Alan continued, “hairbrush. And I’d say two weeks grounding. We’re keeping Cory at home, with adult supervision.”

 

“We’re happy to take Shawn too, if you need us to,” Amy offered. “Although I have to tell you from experience, if Shawn has to hang out at work with you a few times, waiting for you to be done, it makes an impression.”

 

Jon was just about to ask how to handle the grounding. He was new at this. Before he could do it though, he caught sight of a familiar looking foot coming out of the tree, and he was up, racing to the backyard.

 

“Where you going, Hunter?” he asked, grabbing the kid by the arm before he could get away.

 

When he saw the look on Shawn’s face, he instantly gentled his tone, “Hey, what’s up?”

 

“I um...I was just…” Shawn looked down, quickly reaching total panic when he realized he was stuck.

 

“Alright,” Jon said, not letting go. He softly narrated his plan, unsure of why Shawn looked so scared, but wanting to make it go away. “We’re going to go home. We’re going to deal with this. It’s no big deal. And then, we’re done, and it’s over. Just like before.”

 

Shawn still looked completely terrified, and Turner decided it was best to get him home and get this handled. With a quick goodbye to the Matthews, he hustled Shawn to his car, relieved he had skipped the bike today, and started the drive home.

 

The entire way there, Jon talked quietly, while Shawn sat silently, and by the time they got home, Turner just wanted the whole thing over with.

 

“What’re you going to do?” Shawn said, just as they parked the car. His voice was so quiet that Turner could barely hear him.

 

“We’re going to deal with it,” Jon told him, turning the car off and giving the boy his full attention. “We’re going to go upstairs, and I’m going to spank you. Just like before. And you’re grounded for two weeks.”

 

Shawn pulled his lower lip between his teeth, torn between relief and fear. He hated the spankings. They hurt. A lot. But it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The way Cory was acting...Shawn had been worried. Who knew what was going to happen? And even now...Jon hadn’t lied to him after that “wedding” he hadn’t gone to, but still. 

 

“Like before?” he mumbled, after a long minute.

 

“Yeah, kid,” Turner replied, tone still incredibly quiet, like he was trying to coax a stray dog out from a hiding place. “Just like before. Hand. Ass. Done.”

 

Shawn nodded, and Jon got out of the car and walked around to the kid’s side, opening the door and encouraging him out and into the building and onto the elevator. The way Hunter was acting, it was time to get this over with as quickly as possible. Hopefully, when it was all done, he could get Shawn to tell him why he looked like he was about to be drawn and quartered. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shawn faces his punishment.

Turner locked the door behind them when they entered the apartment, both to slow Shawn down if he tried to take off again and to keep Eli from popping in unexpectedly. 

 

Marching the boy to the couch, one hand on his shoulder, he sat down and pulled the teen between his knees, holding him there and taking his hands, trying to make eye contact.

 

“What’s going on, kid?”

 

Shawn didn’t say anything or look at him, so Turner decided to just get it over with. Maybe he’d feel more talkative once they’d finished their discussion.

 

“Alright, we’ll talk later,” he said gently, before making his voice sterner. “For now, we’re going to address your choices this weekend. You took a cab over two hours away. You lied to me about where you were going. You broke into Feeny’s cabin. And, you went swimming in a septic tank. Which is just gross, not to mention dangerous. You showered, right?”

 

The teenager nodded, looking close to tears, but Turner forced himself to keep going, “Good. So, you’re grounded for two weeks. And, so we’re clear, since your behavior clearly demonstrated that you need closer adult supervision, you will be with an adult during that time.”

 

He didn’t get a response from that, surprisingly, so he finished passing sentence, “And you’re getting a spanking. Come on, jeans off.”

 

Turner let go of his hands at that, waiting for Shawn to do what he’d been told, and he was relieved to see the kid slowly fumble with the button and zipper for a minute before pulling his jeans down. He quickly tilted Shawn over his knee, just wanting to get this over with.

 

“You do not go off without telling me where you’re going,” he started, smacking along with the lecture. “You do not commit felonies. Jesus, Shawn. You broke into Feeny’s cabin. What if the neighbors had called the cops? I would have been driving to the Poconos to bail you out of jail. What do you think the court would have had to say about that? I’m trying to file these guardianship papers, and your behavior doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in my ability to keep you on the straight and narrow. Do you get that?”

 

“Sorry,” Shawn choked out. 

 

“I know you are, kid,” Turner sighed. “So am I. I really hate doing this, you know? It’s not fun for me.”

 

That was about where Shawn would have typically made some smartass comment, and Jon felt a little concerned that he didn’t. Regardless, he continued.

 

“And for God’s sake... What were you thinking, Shawn? Swimming? In a septic tank?” the teacher had to swallow back bile as he said it, as he had every time he had thought about Shawn doing that. 

 

“Do you understand what could have happened to you? How many ways this could have gone terribly wrong?”

 

He waited then, wanting a response. This was an experience they’d both had far too much of since Alan had recommended it, and there was a routine to it. Although Jon didn’t expect Shawn to hold a full conversation during this portion, he had found that the flighty teen tended to float off while they were doing this. He wasn’t sure how; his hand hurt like hell by the end, so he knew that Shawn’s ass had to be killing him. 

 

Regardless, if Turner didn’t force at least a little participation during the spanking, it could go on forever. Shawn would not cry. Making him cry wasn’t fun, but it was a good indicator that he had really gotten through to him, at least if the Matthews were to be believed.

  
  


When Shawn didn’t respond, Turner dropped his left leg enough to raise Shawn’s rear higher, slapping down just a bit harder. 

 

“Do you know what could have happened to you?”

 

They had to go through this routine a few times before Shawn broke and said, voice strangled, “I don’t know, but you’re mad so somethin’ bad.”

 

“Somethin’ bad,” Turner scoffed. “You could...you and Matthews could have been murdered or abducted, and no one knew where you were to come and help. You could have gotten hurt at the cabin and just been stranded, with nobody coming to help. You could have gotten arrested. A juvie record isn’t exactly going to help you get into college. You could have drowned, not to mention the crap you literally swam through. Jesus...I don’t even know what to do with you, Shawn. Do you get how sick you could get from that, kid? A staph infection or God only knows what.”

 

He really didn’t know what could have happened to Shawn from swimming in the septic tank, although the very idea made him nauseated. If the kid had a cut or a scrape on him...he could get an infection so easily from being in there. Shawn’s response of “somethin’ bad” seemed pretty accurate if minimizing of how terribly wrong things could have gone.

 

“So, those are some of the “somethin’ bad” that could have happened,” he forced himself to focus. “And I’m sure I’m not even thinking of everything that could have gone wrong. Do you understand how dangerous what you did was?”

 

“Yessir,” Shawn mumbled, having to force himself to focus very hard on not crying. So hard that he called Turner sir, something that had never happened.

 

The man noticed the accidental sir and filed it away in his head, in the section labeled, “Things I Don’t Get About Hunter.”

 

“You going to do it again?”

 

“Noooooooo,” Shawn actually whimpered this response, and Jon could tell he was dangerously close to crying.

 

“What aren’t you going to do again?”

 

Shawn’s legs kicked spasmodically  with the harder smacks Turner laid down with every word of that question, and he responded, “Any of that?”

 

“All of it,” Turner informed him grimly. “Ever again. You will never ever ever ever go off without telling me or another responsible adult where you are. again You will never ever ever ever lie about your whereabouts to me again. You will never ever ever ever go swimming without someone else again. You will never ever ever ever break the law again. And you will absolutely never ever ever ever ever go near a septic tank ever again. Ever. Ever. Ever.”

 

With every single iteration of ever, Turner had spanked Shawn hard, and the boy was dangerously close to tears. Jon brought it home.

 

“I care about you, kid. I will not see you get hurt or ruin your life because you just won’t use that brain of yours to think. You are smart, Shawn. I know you’re smart. So if you think I’m going to watch you throw your life away you’re out of your mind. You got me?

 

Shawn tried to stammer out an “uh huh,” without sobbing, but he couldn’t make it, and the floodgates opened. Hysterical crying with repeated apologies, and Turner didn’t wait for him to calm down, even a little, before he forced the boy to his feet and then pulled him into a hug.

 

“We’re good. You’re fine. You’re grounded, but it’s fine. I love you.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shawn meets the horror worse than a spanking, an actual discussion (rather than a "discussion").

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those vague references to child abuse? They're getting less vague.
> 
> Also, just because I'm multi-tasking, you all almost got 1000 words on immigration and religion while my class almost got this...that would have been bad.

 

 

This was the first I love you, and it (rather predictably, if Jonathan had been thinking about it), it sent Shawn into near hysterics. Any expression of caring did that, and Turner had learned to only say anything even remotely sappy at these moment, when Hunter’s defenses were down, and he’d accept comfort.

 

Given the amount of crying that was occurring right now, Jon realized that this was going to take a long time to calm the kid down. Carefully, without letting go, he tugged them both down to sit on the couch. 

 

Shawn was crying so hard that even the feeling of sitting down didn’t make him jump back up again. Instead, he curled tighter against his teacher, the closest thing to a father he’d ever had, and continued the hysterical tears.

 

They continued for a very long time. Longer than Turner had ever seen Shawn cry, and the other times he’d had to discipline Shawn hadn’t exactly been happy fun times for either of them. It made him feel conflicted.

 

On one hand, Alan Matthews was probably the best father he’d ever met, and the man had been very clear that crying came with the territory, that you wanted to see tears. He’d insisted that the crying meant that the lesson would stick, and spanking short of that point did more harm than good. On the other hand...he made the kid cry. He hated people crying, and he did love Shawn, and the idea that he was the reason for these tears made him feel terrible.

 

Alan had talked him through those feelings, and he recognized that not wanting to spank Shawn was more about the short-term ease and good feelings it would give him rather than what was long-term best for the troubled teen. 

 

“Tears are….I don’t know. They let you get feelings out. And Shawn is terrible at that,” Alan Matthews had explained. “And there is way more going on under the surface with that kid. If you don’t let him work that stuff out now, it’ll come to a head sooner or later, in a less controlled setting.”

 

It made sense. The tears were cathartic for Shawn. After each spanking, he’d been calmer, and he seemed more relaxed. Lighter. For a couple of days. Then, he’d start to tense up again, and they’d eventually reach a point where he’d do something so outrageous that this was Jonathan’s only recourse.

 

This was definitely the worst spanking Jonathan had handed out, implement or no implement, and it took Shawn a very long time to calm down enough for them to talk. By the time that happened, the teen’s face was swollen, and Turner knew he had to be dehydrated.

 

As soon as he was let go, Jon stood up and made his way to the kitchen to get a glass of water and wet a washcloth in the sink, with a firmly ordered, “Stay,” to the teen who was curling up on himself without being embraced.

 

To his relief, Shawn listened, and Turner was soon back at the couch, taking his kid’s chin in his hand and using the cool cloth to wipe at his dejected face. 

 

Shawn took this with remarkable calm, neither objecting to the one word order or having his face washed like a small child. Even when he was handed the glass with an order to drink the whole thing, he didn’t balk, drinking it down without a single complaint or even an eye roll.

 

That accomplished, Jonathan leaned back on the couch, getting himself comfortable before he pulled Shawn toward him, nestling the teen against him back to chest and just holding him.

 

This was the thing that got more of a response, with Shawn struggling a little bit and huffing with indignation. He did not cuddle.

 

All his complaints got him was a tightening of the arms around him, and Turner asking, “You think I like what I just had to do, kid?”

 

Shawn didn’t respond, and Turner answered his own question, “I don’t. So throw me a bone and let me hug you a little until I feel better. Okay?”

 

“‘k,” Shawn agreed, settling down almost instantaneously with the information that this wasn’t for him. 

 

They lay in companionable semi-silence for a while, Shawn still letting out the occasional sniff. When Turner felt the boy relaxing and growing heavy against him, he started talking softly, hoping that the drowsiness that was overtaking Shawn would work in his favor.

 

“Freaked out a little bit there, kiddo,” he pointed out.

 

Shawn shrugged, and Turner continued, “Like, taking off out the window and heading to parts unknown. We gotta talk about it.”

 

“I wasn’t running away,” Shawn disagreed, sounding more alert than Turner had expected.

 

“No?” the teacher feigned surprise. “So out the window with a duffle bag was what? Just a little more cardio than the stairs?”

 

“No. I mean I wasn’t running away,” Shawn explained, picking at a cuticle. He was focused intently on his hands as he said, “I was gonna come back.”

 

“So what was the point in runnin’ in the first place?”

 

Shawn gave another little shrug, saying, “Just figured it was better if you had a chance to cool down before we talked about it.”

 

“Hmmm,” Turner made a noise, continuing, “And what did you think that would do?”

 

That got no response, and Turner pressed, “Did you think you’d get out of ‘you know,’?” 

 

The euphemism was Shawn’s own, and the teen blushed and shook his head. He was well aware by now that if he got caught doing something dangerous, he could expect a spanking. He hadn’t thought he’d get out of a spanking. There hadn’t been a ton of thinking involved in the process at all. It was mostly just flight. He’d known he’d have to go back and face the music eventually, he just figured it was best that Jon not be quite as furious when that happened.

 

“You were really mad,” Shawn managed to explain.

 

“I was furious,” Turner agreed. “What you did was dangerous, Shawn, and I’ve got no patience for it. But you’ve made me mad before. Regularly. What was different about this time?”

 

Shawn tried to shrug out of the man’s arms, wanting to pace. Really, he wanted out of that apartment, and the way he was feeling, that bugs under his skin feeling, he didn’t care so much about his pantsless state as running.

 

The teacher wasn’t having it though, and Shawn settled after a minute of trying to get away. Away from this conversation and these feelings he was really not comfortable with.

 

He focused back in on the hangnail he’d found, worrying at it and tugging as he said, “Cory was freaking out. I just-I figured it was better if you were maybe not so mad when you...you know.”

 

“Why? What did you think was going to happen?” 

 

Jon had a lot of bad feelings about where this was going, and part of him wanted to stop. Chet Hunter had always seemed like an affable enough guy, and Shawn tried to act like the only issues in his family were poverty and neglect. Regardless, Turner had caught the way the boy flinched occasionally if Jon moved too quickly, and he heard the nightmares that woke the boy up most nights.

 

“I don’t know,” Shawn tried.

 

Turner made a buzzer noise, “Wrong. Try again.”

 

“I- I thought you were really mad, and maybe it was going to be worse. I mean, it hurts plenty already, man, but Cory was flipping out. I guess I thought maybe you were going to do something worse.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“I don’t know,” Shawn said. “Hit me with something? Wire hanger or a belt or an extension cord. Something. I didn’t think you’d punch me or anything.”

 

“Well, I’m glad you knew I wasn’t going to deck you,” Turner allowed.

 

“Black eyes are hard to hide,” Shawn told him softly, sounding more like he was talking to himself. “Would’ve been trouble at school. And Feeny and the Matthews knew I was in trouble, so...you’re not dumb. It would have been too hard to explain.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Difficult discussions occur (warnings for references to past child abuse).

Turner felt sick to his stomach, “Do you think that’s why I wouldn’t punch you?”

 

Shawn shrugged, not replying, and Turner sat up and bodily turned the boy around to make eye contact.

 

“I will never punch you, Shawn,” he promised, catching the teen’s chin in his hand and holding him still so that he had to look at him. “And I would never use an extension cord or a wire hanger. That’s abusive. Nobody deserves that. My hand. That’s all. I swear to you, kid.”

 

Shawn nodded his understanding, “‘k.”

 

Deciding that was enough of the forced eye contact, Turner let go of Shawn’s chin and settled them both back in the position they’d been in. The lack of eye contact seemed to be working in general, it was just that he had to make sure Shawn really understood what he was saying.

 

“What about a belt?” Shawn asked, after another moment of silence.

 

“No,” Turner agreed. “If what scares you is that things are going to get worse...frankly, Shawn, I’ve found that spanking you has been a pretty decent deterrent so far. You’re not an angel, but...we’re doing okay. If I felt like it had to escalate...I won’t use anything worse than a hairbrush. So, hand or hairbrush. I swear.”

 

“‘k.”

 

They lapsed back into silence, Turner formulating the next question for several long minutes before he finally forced himself to ask it.

 

“What made you think I was going to use a wire hanger on you, Shawn? Or punch you?”

 

The teen didn’t answer, and Jon gave him a few minutes before warning, “The question isn’t going away, kid. Although, with you being grounded I could probably come up with some writing for you to do for me to talk about this if that’s more comfortable.”

 

That got a response, with Shawn desperately not wanting to have to look deeper at this stuff, which writing would make him do.

 

“Sometimes,” he slowly worked out, talking slowly and taking deep pauses, “if I made Dad mad...you know, I do a lot of dumb stuff. I’m a fuck up. I know that.”

 

Turner wanted to object to Shawn’s characterization of himself, but he also didn’t want to break the halting momentum the teen had managed to attain.

 

“So...yeah. If I make him mad. He just...I really press his buttons sometimes, and especially if he’s having a hard time, and I do something stupid...he’ll punch me. He mostly doesn’t whoop me anymore. ‘Cause ‘m not a kid. He’s never done it when I haven’t deserved it though.”

 

That was a bridge too far, and Turner had to interrupt, “Nobody deserves that, Shawn. And you’re not a fuck up.”

 

The boy went silent again, and Turner asked, “What would you say if Cory told you that Mr. Matthews had punched him? Is there anything Cory could do that would make that okay?”

 

“Cory’s not like me,” Shawn scoffed.

 

“You guys get into plenty of the same trouble,” Turner pointed out. “I’m not saying you don’t do stupid stuff sometimes, kiddo. Both of you. But nobody, including you, deserves to be punched or beaten.”

 

Shawn shrugged and went silent once more, clearly through with the conversation. He’d already spilled too many secrets, and he didn’t want to talk anymore about his fucked up home life.

 

It wasn’t like Shawn didn’t understand that other kids didn’t live this way. He just always had. And it was a secret, but it wasn’t like anyone doubted that he was a bad kid, and he’d had enough people tell him he was a juvenile delinquent that he figured it was merited. Even if it seemed like Turner didn’t.

 

Realizing that he’d hit a wall with Shawn, Turner let the silence continue, not wanting to push too far. They had two weeks of grounding to get through, and he could see some writing in Shawn’s future.


	6. Epilogue

Turner laid down the rules for the grounding after he forced Shawn to take a shower and fed him some dinner.

 

No tv. No phone. No dates. No going out. No being alone. That was the one that Shawn really didn’t like, although he wasn’t a fan of any of them.

 

“What do you mean I can’t be alone?” he asked, having regained some of his usual temper.

 

“I mean that you’ve demonstrated pretty well that you can’t be left alone without supervision, so for the next two weeks you won’t be.”

 

“How do you think this is even going to work?” Shawn asked, collapsing onto the couch, the irritation practically radiating off of him.

 

“I mean that I’ll be taking you to school. After school, you’ll either stay with me or get picked up by Cory’s mom and stay there. You need adult supervision to keep you from doing stupid stuff? We can give that to you,” Turner kept his tone firm as he outlined how this was going to work. Not how he thought, how it was, going to work.

 

“That’s not fair, man,” Shawn argued, making puppy dog eyes and hoping that he could convince Turner to change his mind. “I’m way too old to get babysat.”

 

Turner shrugged, “You show me you can behave responsibly for the next two weeks, and you’re done.”

 

“What does that even mean?”

 

“It means that you do what you’re told and you don’t take off on me or any other adult I leave you with,” Turner told him.

 

Shawn didn’t reply to that, scrunching down further in the couch cushion and making  an expression that could have been most accurately identified as pouting. 

 

Not for the first time, Turner wished that they had a rule about having a bad attitude. Technically, they could. He had control over that. He could make a rule. The problem was that even if he did institute that rule, Hunter was unlikely to abide by it. Not to mention the fact that it had always struck him as slightly facist. You didn’t just have to obey, but you had to do it with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. 

 

Regardless, when Shawn was pissed about something and acting like a brat, Jon wished that he was the kind of parent who did that. It would have made things easier.

 

He was the kind of parent who wasn’t going to put up with the attitude with anyone else, and he settled next to Shawn, “I get that you’re pissed,” he explained. “And that’s fine. I’m not exactly thrilled with what you’ve done lately either. You need to be polite at the Matthews’ though, unless you want to hang out with me every day after school. Which I’m guessing you don’t want.”

 

Shawn straightened up a little at that. He didn’t say anything, but the pouty expression slipped a little bit.

 

“Want to watch tv?” Jon asked, figuring the point was made. When Hunter nodded, Jon turned the television on, and they spent the rest of their night not talking. 

 

As irritated as Shawn clearly was about the idea of having to be with an adult all the time, he did settle quite a bit, and by the end of the night he had slowly scooted his way closer, finally falling half asleep on Jon’s shoulder.

 

This tenuous peace was gone by the next day, when Turner stopped Shawn on his way out the door.

 

“Where you going?”   
  


“School,” Shawn replied, raising an eyebrow and smirking, “why? Do I not need to go?”

 

“You do,” Turner replied, grabbing his car keys. “Did you forget our discussion last night already?”

 

“Come on, man,” Shawn pushed his hands through his hair. “You know what I told you. When adults start talking-”

 

“Yeah yeah,” Turner nodded, ushering the kid out the door. “You hear a high pitched buzzing. I doubt that’s the problem today. You know I’m taking you to school.”

 

“Fine,” Shawn grumbled, shouldering his backpack. 

 

“And Mrs. Matthews is picking you up,” Turner reminded him. “And you’re staying at Cory’s house until I’m done with Feeny. Got it?”

 

Shawn didn’t reply, and Turner grabbed him, “Got it? I really don’t want to extend this punishment, but if you take off, I will.”

 

“Got it,” Shawn told him, deeply aggrieved.

 

“Don’t worry,” Turner threw his arm over Shawn’s shoulders, “two weeks is going to fly by.”

 

Shawn’s face told him exactly what he thought of that theory, and Jon avoided eye contact. He had a bad feeling that Shawn was right.


End file.
